One and Only
by True Lie
Summary: Harry returns from a long absence to a world that is like the one he left, but he knows it's not, its never what he thinks it is.


Title: The One and Only  
  
Author: True Lie  
  
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.  
  
Prologue  
  
"Hermione, it's great to see you again dear," Said a rather over zealous Mrs Weasley as she pulled Hermione into a motherly hug. "Come in and get settled dear lunch is almost up, if you need any help with your trunk just leave it here and I'll get Fred and George to take it to Ginny's room later, however I must go out and buy some floo powder, we're expecting guests next week and we can't have them using their own."  
  
"Thank you Mrs Weasley but I'm sure it'll be fine." Hermione said as she started up the stairs with her especially enchanted trunk that made it weigh nothing but a feather. She knew where she was going of course, she had been there many times before, she stopped just outside Ginny's room and knocked quietly on the door.  
  
"C'min." Was the muffled reply, she entered the room to find it just the way it was the last time she was here, Ginny's bed in the far corner, the spare bed on the other side opposite Ginny's bed, Ginny's writing desk next to it facing out of the window and her wardrobe just to the left of the door and various pictures of Harry, Hermione and the quidditch team littered the wall. Ginny rolled over to see who her early morning visitor was, and immediately sat up.  
  
"Hermione, what on earth are you doing her at this unearthly hour?" She asked sitting up and stretching.  
  
"I told you in my last letter that I would have to be here early, and what are you talking about, it's half ten, you've got to be kidding if you think that it's early." She replied with a smile on her face.   
  
"Bugger, half ten? I got to get going." Said Ginny as she yawned and swung her legs over the side of the bed and walked slowly out of her room into the bathroom, Hermione looked around the now empty room and started to unpack her trunk and place her clothes where she had the past times she had spent at the Burrow.   
  
She was putting her books on the writing desk when she noticed a yellow envelope on top of the desk addressed to her in a familiar handwriting. She turned the envelope over in her hands and noticed the same curvy writing on the back fold of the envelope with the small message;  
  
Our Place. 11:00  
  
HP  
  
Hermione new who the two initials stood for in the bottom right of the message her best friend; Harry Potter, Harry had disappeared at the beginning of October of their sixth year at Hogwarts, and Hermione highly doubted that this note was a recent one.   
  
Ginny came back into the room a moment later and closed the door making Hermione jump, she dropped the note back onto the table and tried to hide that what she had been reading, however just the mere thought of Harry made her very upset and she started shaking, trying to hold back her sobs Ginny noticed this and placed a calming hand on her shoulder, Hermione leaned back into Ginny and rested her head on her shoulder. Hermione, without any close friends throughout sixth year had become very close to Ginny, Harry was gone, and after a long and terrible relationship with Ron in sixth year, which only ended because Ginny would refuse to let Ron near Hermione. Hermione was still a little uneasy about being near Ron, but he was still a friend, and they stayed friends after the relationship ended, finally realizing that they were better friends than a couple. However, their friendship was lacking what it once had had, and Hermione needed someone that would help her, and she found that in Ginny Weasley.  
  
"You can come if you want." Ginny said softly into Hermione's ear.  
  
"To what?"  
  
"Just follow me, it'll be a surprise, either that or you'll figure it out on the way." Ginny said as she led her friend out of her room and down stairs, carefully treading through the kitchen and out through the back door, Ginny stopped and looked around the garden to see if any one was there, when she was satisfied that no one was there she grabbed Hermione's hand and made a dash for the gate in the fence at the back of the garden.  
  
Once a safe distance from the house Hermione tried to start conversation; "Where are we going Gin?" Ginny just shook her head and put a finger over her lips to quiet her. They walked into the woods at the back of the Burrow where they zigzagged between the trees until they came to a clearing which was a ten minute or so walk from the edge of the woods.  
  
"Ginny what on earth are we doing here?" Hermione exasperated from the frustration of not knowing something.  
  
"What's the date Hermione?" Ginny asked watching the far side of the clearing.  
  
"July thirty-first, why what does it have anything to do with why we're here?" Hermione asked with little patience.  
  
"Harry told me to wait until his birthday, and then I would know where to meet him, or whether not to worry about where he is." Ginny said still watching the far side of the clearing.  
  
"It takes him nearly a year to tell you where to meet him after he takes off, and why should I hide if he is coming here?" Said Hermione still annoyed at not having enough information.  
  
"Just trust me Hermione, stay back over there until every thing settles down, it'll only be about ten or so more minutes." Ginny said turning back over her shoulder to look at Hermione to try to calm her.  
  
Soon time was almost standing still for Hermione, she couldn't believe that after eight months she was going to see Harry again, she had dreamt of this day for a very long time, ever since he left all she had was Ginny's promise that he would come back. She had so many things to tell him, so many things that she had left unsaid for too long, she looked down at her watch, she had but a few minutes to wait until she saw her best friend again, she leaned slightly to the side of the tree she was hiding behind so that she may get a clear view of the clearing but what she saw was not what she expected. Albus Dumbledore speaking to Ginny, she could only just make out what was being said.  
  
"Virginia my dear, believe me when I say that I would stay if I could, but I can't, maybe Harry may be able to work out where it is I must go to, but I cannot linger here a moment longer than necessary."  
  
"Well as long as Harry comes I'm okay with where you go Headmaster." She replied with her head bowed.  
  
"Well then if you'll give me some room dear I'd like to call Harry back to us." Ginny retreated to the edge of the clearing and watched Dumbledore very carefully, Hermione turned back to Dumbledore, who had his arms spread wide and his head looking up at the sky, slowly a dimmed blue-red light started to circle him, quickly gathering speed it made its way up and in front of where Dumbledore stood, and hung there in the air as though waiting for something, a pool in the sky, slowly circling around and around, it was almost hypnotic. He slumped in his stance as he backed away from the swirling circle panting and turned back to Ginny; "Nothing to do but wait for him Virginia, well, I must be off, see you at school," Dumbledore turned his head over to where Hermione was crouching behind the tree, "you too Hermione." He said with a playful smile on his face, then, he was gone.  
  
Hermione started to move out from behind the tree but stopped when Ginny motioned her to stay with her hands, she moved back behind the tree only taking occasional looks every few seconds making sure that she did not miss the return of her friend.  
  
As Hermione looked at the light she became more and more entranced with its beauty but at the same time she began to hate it more as it was tantalizing her with the hope the her friend would come back soon, she thought about how the last eight months had been the hardest and how much Harry had really meant to her, how much he filled her life with excitement and thrill, but also about how much he made her feel great about everything she did.  
  
She looked back over at Ginny who was looking almost as edgy as Hermione felt, Ginny turned to look back out of the clearing as though she had heard a noise and Hermione followed her look to see what had caught her friend's attention however it was only a small amount of time that they had looked away, the pool of light had disappeared silently and unnoticed by the two girls, although the light had left, it did leave someone there, but from where Hermione was, it was not Harry.  
  
The man was lying motionless except for the slight movement in his chest rising up and down, he had long flowing blonde hair down to just below his shoulders, his clothes were obviously from another time period, and he had a sword and scabbard on his belt, as Hermione rushed over she could see the he had a bow and a quiver of arrows strapped to his back.  
  
Ginny was standing just a small distance away with her mouth open in amazement, she was standing at the mans feet, but from the where Hermione was kneeling at the mans crown she noticed that he had an arrow in his shoulder which had appeared to miss the collar bone and pierce the gap between the bone and shoulder, his eyes were closed and there was a pained expression on his face.  
  
"Hermione, what do we do? What if Dumbledore brought some else back, this is definitely not Harry, and he has a flipping great big arrow in his shoulder." Said Ginny in a hushed tone, clearly distressed over the whole situation they found themselves in.  
  
"Well, we shouldn't move him because that could do more damage, and I don't think removing the arrow would be just as bad, but maybe Fred or George could do something, since they can use magic." Suggested Hermione, although she did not feel utterly convinced that either of them could perform the right spell to remove the arrow from his body.  
  
"They've left for work already, but Katie may be able to, she's studying to become a mediwitch, but she may not be at home," She looked at Hermione with a desperate look in her eyes, "I'll go get her you try to make sure that no one else sees him."  
  
"Just hurry back alright?" Ginny gave Hermione's hand a quick squeeze of reassurance and darted off through the trees. Hermione looked down at the man and brushed some of his golden hair off his face and behind his ear. She gasped loudly at what she saw and jumped back a few steps, she slowly bent back down for a closer look at the mans ears, they weren't normal ears; they were pointy and seemed to fit his head better than normal ears would. Hermione had never read about people that had ears like these, well not in official books, she had seen people with these ears in cartoons on the television during Christmas time, but they were Santa's Elves that had them, not men.  
  
She looked of the man again to see if his shoes were also the same as the ones that Santa's Elves had worn, small and pointy with bells on them, but she leather boots that had laces looping right the way up the mans ankle, tying the shoe right up the mans lower leg.  
  
She peeled back the grey cloak that he was wearing and started to go through the man's pockets to find anything that might lead her to discover anything of indication of who he is, when Ginny and Katie came through the clearing on one of Fred and Georges old Cleansweeps and hopped off right next to the man.  
  
"Who is he? Do either of you know him?" Katie asked as she knelt down next to the man feeling his wrist to see if he had a pulse.  
  
"No, we were waiting for. a friend when this bloke showed up and, erm, collapsed." Said Ginny not looking at Katie while she was speaking.  
  
"Right, he showed up with an arrow half way through his body does he? Well then let's remove this then." She said and pushed her sleeve up her arm and pulled out her wand, she pointed the wand at the base of the arrow and said an incantation the neither Ginny nor Hermione could hear, the arrow moved out of the wound, seemingly painless however it started to slow as it got near the top of the shoulder, Katie shrugged and said; "well I'm not too good at that one yet, but may as well just pull it out of there."  
  
Before Ginny or Hermione could say anything Katie had pulled the arrow the rest of the way out of the man's shoulder, the man's faced was contorted with pain and there was a sharp intake of breath, the man's breathing became ragged and hoarse, and started to thrash about wildly.  
  
"Petrificus Totalus! Stupefy!" Barked Katie, to stop him from thrashing around and putting him in a state of unconsciousness so that he felt much less pain. "We must get him to a proper hospital, Mobilicorpus, Ginny take him back to The Burrow on the broom." Ginny moved quickly but was stopped when Hermione said.  
  
"Katie we can't, get a doctor to come to us." Argued Hermione.  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"Well look at his ears, for one thing, and he also looks like he has been gearing up for a muggle war back in the sixteen hundreds." She reasoned although Katie looked like she was not going to change her mind until she got a good look at his ears.  
  
"Right well, I'll owl my mother then, but what caused him to react like that?" Asked Katie totally bewildered as to why the man had suddenly broke into hysterics, Hermione, who was struggling to keep her temper in check snatched the arrow out of Katie's had and waved in front of her face.  
  
"Arrows, have an angled tip to stop them being removed without pain and to do as much damage as they can on the way out." Said Hermione pointing to the tip with blood and pieces of flesh on it.  
  
"Oh, well Ginny give me the broom and I'll owl mum, and you stay here with this bloke, and I'll be back as soon as I can." Katie said as she swung her legs over the broom, "On second thoughts maybe we should just bring him back and put him in a bed straight away." Katie moved on ad on the broom with the man trailing her.  
  
"Go into my room, I left the window wide open." Shouted Ginny as she ran behind Katie, trying her best to catch up with her, Hermione who did not know her way back, was doing her best to keep up soon realised that the old broom was barely able to hold Katie and the stranger, so Katie slowed to a pace that was able to hold them both.  
  
"Gin, go owl mum, she's not too far away, use Pig, he'll get to her quicker than any other owl that you've got." Said  
  
Katie, so Ginny darted off ahead of them both, Katie turned to Hermione once Ginny was out of earshot. "So are you going to tell me how you two came across this bloke?" She asked her. Hermione shrugged, she didn't see how it could hurt, but she also thought that she was probably not supposed to know in the first place, so it was not her place to say anything.  
  
"Me and Gin were just going for a walk, and we found him in the clearing, there's really nothing more to it." She told Katie, avoiding her prying eyes, as The Burrow came into view, Hermione heard her mutter something that sounded like; "Right, and Dumbledore is young." Hermione shook her head and walked through the kitchen, up to Ginny's room.  
  
Were Katie was looking over the man's features, with a disbelieving huff, she started to remove all the weapons from his body and lay them down on the spare bed in Ginny's room. Hermione looked at the bed taking in everything she saw, a small knife, with carvings right up the blade, the handle was bone white, however she could see that it was not ivory, she saw his sword was short and appeared to weigh next to nothing, and his bow looked to be of very fine make, the arrows were very delicately made.  
  
"One man army." Stated Hermione, she said as she pulled out an arrow from the quiver, and compared it to the one  
  
Katie pulled from his shoulder, they were different, they appeared to have been made from different wood, and the one from the man's shoulder was much shorter, and seemed to have been made in a hurry.  
  
Ginny burst into the room being followed quickly by a woman that looked like Katie, only much older.  
  
"Hermione this is Anne Bell, my mother and mediwitch, mum, this is Hermione Granger, a friend of Ginny's and mine from school." Said Katie, introducing Hermione to her mother.  
  
"Hello Hermione, nice to meet you."  
  
"You too." She replied taking a step back to give Katie's mother enough room to get past to the bed with the man on it, she sat down with Ginny and Katie on the bed that had the weapons on it and watched Anne perform her tests after taking off the spells that Katie had performed to save the man any agony. She performed spells that removed his clothes, all except his underwear, and used her wand to examine his body moving it slowly from his head down his body, when the wand reached his legs it began to shake violently and glow a dark red, Katie and Anne both winced and shook their heads, Katie moved beside her mother and took a look for herself.  
  
"Looks like it was crushed by something, something very big, and heavy." She said, however Anne was ignoring her and was examining his should, with her wand, but this time she was quickly flicking it over the wound. She stood up and examined the wand, and looked at Katie and shook her head disapprovingly.  
  
"What on earth happened to his shoulder, Katie?"  
  
"Well, there was a muggle arrow in it, and I didn't know that it's-" She was interrupted by Anne with a raised hand.  
  
"Alright, well, I can fix his leg in a heartbeat, but I'll need to perform a spell on his shoulder to keep him doing much more damage to it while it repairs over time, with the help of a little magic of course, but it will still be a long road to recovery as it has had extensive damage done to the nerves and tissue in the shoulder." She reported in a very official and experienced voice.  
  
"How long will he be asleep for?" Asked Ginny from her end of the bed, as Anne began work on his injuries, after a minute she straightened and mover towards the door.  
  
"He should be awake any minute, however I have to go, this was my break, so I have to get back to the practice. It was very nice meeting you Hermione, I'll see you later at the wedding of course?" asked Anne.  
  
"Yes of course, well bye," Replied Hermione, looking back at the man that was now under the covers of Ginny's bed,  
  
"Gin, when's your mum getting back?" She asked after Anne had left.  
  
"Any time now, I'm not to sure it depends were she went to get the floo powder."  
  
"Oh, where's Ron?"  
  
"He's working with Fred and George, in their shop at Diagon Alley."  
  
"When does he get back?" Continued Hermione.  
  
"Usually around six," answered Katie who had gone to stand over the man and pull out her wand, "Mum forgot to put his arm in a sling so it wouldn't dangle and move about." Katie took a step back and aimed at his shoulder, "Ferula" she said, and his arm moved into a sling and sat above his chest. "Why don't we go down for lunch while we wait for him to wake up?" Offered Katie as she moved to the door.  
  
Ginny and Hermione nodded their agreement and went downstairs for lunch, they had sandwiches that Katie had made, and ate in silence, all three of them thinking about the man upstairs in Ginny's bed. It was Katie that broke the silence long after they had finished their lunch.  
  
"Well, he was bloody good looking wasn't he?" She said, "George is very lucky that I love him so much." She joked, at this Ginny broke into a broad smile and nodded her agreement, Hermione had to agree with both of them, she had never seen a man that could actually be referred to as beautiful, not the usual handsome.  
  
They heard a loud thump from upstairs, and each of them dashed up to Ginny's room to see if it came from there, it had, the man was now sitting up in bed, pulling on his shirt, with his feet on the floor, he looked at them with a groggy expression on his face, but it soon became happy.  
  
"Cormamin lindua ele lle." He said, in a language that Hermione did not understand, and from the blank look on Katie's face, neither did she.  
  
"As does mine, but may I ask, who are you?" Ginny spoke to him in a normal and controlled tone as he stood, although shaky at first he regained his balance and moved toward Ginny.  
  
"Lle rangwa amin?" Said the man looking at all three of them, with a disbelieving look in his eyes, Hermione noticed that he had already put his pants back on, and that he was wearing his shirt over the sling.  
  
"Yes of course we do, why wouldn't we?" Asked Ginny again as though she understood the mans speech.  
  
"Because I am speaking a tongue which has not been spoken, by wizard or muggle, for a millennia that's why Ginny," He replied in perfect English, looking directly at Ginny, "well, I should actually say that neither wizard nor muggle know of the language." He added, as though it was just an after thought.  
  
"Well then, it certainly sounded like English to me, tell us then who you are." Ginny was being very persistent, as though she could not care that she could understand the man and Katie and Hermione could not.  
  
"I am a High Elf; to my people my name is Legoril, to the people in this time, I am," he stopped looking at each of them slowly taking in their expressions and reading them, trying to guess their reactions, "Harry Potter." He stood straighter, standing only just taller than Ginny and Katie, although almost two inches higher than Hermione. The three girls stood in shock, unmoving, Katie was the first to speak.  
  
"Prove it, then, if you really are Harry Potter, then you'll be able to tell me something that only you and I'd know." Harry looked at her and smiled, then started to laugh.  
  
"Don't have to think too hard for this one do I Katie? It could be that before you asked George out you had asked me out, or then maybe later you tried to surprise George in the showers, although it turned out to be me." He said with a knowing wink at the end, Katie's expression turned soft and she rushed towards him to envelop him in a tight hug.  
  
"Damn it Potter, what did you think you were doing, running off like that? You had half the bloody Ministry in an uproar over safety at Hogwarts, don't let me get started on how it let all of us feel." She said closely in his ear, it was but a whisper but it was also firm and commanding.  
  
Katie moved away and Ginny moved towards him and enveloped him a hug, she did not speak to him, but when she tried to pull away he held her close and whispered in her ear something that Hermione could not hear. Ginny moved towards Katie and let Hermione welcome Harry back.  
  
Hermione jumped on Harry and pulled him in to a very tight hug, Harry winced in pain as she crushed his body to hers, Hermione immediately loosened her grip on him in fear of doing any more damage to him.  
  
"This is where missed being most." He told her as she clung to him as though her life depended on it, however her mind raced, Harry was back, he was an Elf, but it seemed so unbelievable, Elves had once existed, but they had not been seen for an extremely long time, it seemed ludicrous that Harry could be an Elf with none of Elven kind existing for a millennia.  
  
"Ginny I'm back, you'd better be up by now," shouted a commanding voice from downstairs, Ginny jumped and raced out the door to stop her mother from coming up the stairs and finding Harry in this state. Hermione pulled away from Harry rather reluctantly, and Katie challenged Harry again.  
  
"Harry whoever you got to cover your hair and do the ears did an absolutely shocking job." She said, however Harry fixed her with a stare and let a reserved smile form on his lips.  
  
"Your hair would be just as bad if you didn't have the luxuries of shampoo and conditioner for a few hundred years." He retorted.  
  
"Look I believe it's you Harry, but why bother trying to fool us?" Said Katie.  
  
"I'm telling the truth, just ask Ginny, she'll set you straight, just believe me for now," he looked pointedly at both of them, Hermione nodded, and Katie nodded following her lead. "But right now Katie I need a favour, I believe you studied the concepts and uses of glamour?" She nodded again. "Well, I need you to make my ears and hair normal."  
  
"I don't see why you can't just take them off," she said, and Harry let out a groan of frustration, "Alright, alright keep your hat on, how do you want it done then?" She asked.  
  
"Well, although I'd rather keep it all the way it is, I don't really want everyone knowing about it, just put it back the way you remember it and if it needs changing we'll go from there. Oh and I'll need the scar back too, just remove the glamour from my forehead."  
  
Katie sat Harry down on the bed he was just on and moved her wand around his head in a circular motion, soon his hear was shortening and getting darker until it was it's usual black, Hermione suddenly felt compelled to ask a million questions about where'd he'd been, what he'd done and how it felt. Katie moved on to his ears and started making them rounder, not the long thin ones he just had. Ginny came back into the room out of breath and obviously startled about something.  
  
"Mum said that Fred and George were closing up earlier today, and that they're bringing Ron home in about half an hour, then going out, and you said-" Harry interrupted Ginny.  
  
"Well I really do need to speak to you Ginny, so I think we'll go for a walk, I believe that the news I bring you, will need to be spoken away from walls with so many ears." Hermione looked at Katie with an eyebrow raised, and Katie shrugged as if she really couldn't care less, however Hermione felt like se needed to know.  
  
"Talk about what?" She asked.  
  
"What I have to say is for Ginny only, once I have told her, it will be up to her to decide what to do with such information." Said Harry as he stood and picked up the broom with his free hand, and motioning to Ginny to go out the window on it, as she did so Harry pulled Hermione into another hug and kissed her temple, "I need to talk to you too, after, I want to tell you everything, and catch up on what I've missed out on with you." He said, he moved to the window and put one leg out of the window and turned to wave at Hermione and Katie, then swung his other leg out the window and hopped off the windowsill, they both rushed over to look down the two storey drop, to find Harry walking away calmly, Hermione moved back out of the window as she saw Ginny swoop down on her broom to glide beside Harry.  
  
As she sat down, Hermione realised that she had asked many questions today, and despite the feelings she had when Ginny told her that Harry was coming back, that finally all her questions would be answered, she found that she now had more questions and less answers than she had before. 


End file.
